Nick Young Opts Out, Will Become Free Agent
WEDNESDAY, 5:06pm: Young has officially opted out, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 12:52pm: Nick Young has let the Lakers know that he’s opting out of his contract for next season to become a free agent in July, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The news is not at all surprising, as Young has appeared likely to opt out since at least March, even as he danced around the issue without giving a definitive answer. He’ll hit the market rather than collect the minimum for next season, but there’s mutual interest in a return.
Still, Young wants the Lakers to make him a “priority” this summer, according to McMenamin, suggesting that he’s angling for a significant raise. Just how much interest the Lakers will have in giving him more than the minimum will likely hinge on their pursuit of marquee targets in free agency. The team has reportedly been considering ways to pair LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in purple-and-gold, and acquiring stars of that ilk would likely erase the cap space necessary to give Young a hefty raise. The Lakers would probably be limited to giving Young a 20% raise via his Non-Bird rights or using the $2.732MM room exception on him.
The 29-year-old Los Angeles native gave his hometown team a discount when he joined the Lakers in free agency last summer, and his numbers benefited from an otherwise injury-hit roster. He averaged a career-high 17.9 points in 28.3 minutes per game as a sixth man, and he shot 38.6% on 5.5 three-point attempts per contest.
Kings Extend Qualifying Offer To Isaiah Thomas
The Kings have extended a qualifying offer to Isaiah Thomas, meaning he’ll enter next month as a restricted free agent, the team announced. The offer is for one year at $2,875,131, as I explained this spring, but it will likely serve only as a placeholder for Thomas, who can command a long-term deal for significantly more money on the market.
The news is no surprise, as GM Pete D’Alessandro told reporters this spring that he planned on extending the QO. It’ll allow Sacramento to match offers for the 25-year-old. D’Alessandro has publicly praised Thomas, but the team would like to bring aboard a pass-first point guard this summer, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee notes via Twitter.
An Eastern Conference executive in March pegged the market value of the ASM Sports client at $4-5MM per year. That would fit within the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, though the Kings, in addition to having the right of first refusal, have full Bird rights on Thomas.
Jonas Jerebko Opts In, Will Remain With Pistons
JUNE 25TH: Jerebko has officially opted in, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports (Twitter link).
MAY 28TH: Jonas Jerebko will exercise his $4.5MM player option to remain with the Pistons next season, as he tells Oskar Pålsson of the Swedish newspaper Borås Tidning (translation via Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News). The news is no real surprise, given the forward’s lack of playing time this past season, but it appeared as though the identity of the team’s next coach would weigh heavily on Jerebko’s decision regarding the option. He expressed pleasure with Detroit’s hiring of Stan Van Gundy, Goodwill notes, and perhaps Jerebko’s comfort with him was the determining factor for the former second-round pick.
The Bill Duffy client‘s choice to opt in pushes Detroit’s commitments to about $38MM for nine players next season, though that still leaves plenty of room for the team to strike new deals with Greg Monroe and Rodney Stuckey or pursue free agents from other clubs. Van Gundy nonetheless would probably prefer not to have to shell out significant money to the 27-year-old Jerebko, whose playing time and production have tumbled each year he’s played since his rookie campaign. He averaged just 4.2 points in 11.6 minutes per game this past season.
Still, Jerebko shot 41.9% from behind the arc this year for a team that otherwise suffered from a lack of outside shooting, and he started 73 games for the Pistons as a rookie before tearing his right Achilles tendon and missing all of 2010/11. Former Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars signed him to a four-year, $18MM contract after that missed season, but Jerebko never returned to the role he had as a rookie, and he clashed with then-coaches Lawrence Frank and Maurice Cheeks.
Andrei Kirilenko Opts In With Nets
TUESDAY, 9:22am: Kirilenko has officially opted in, the team announced via press release.
MONDAY, 5:57pm: Forward Andrei Kirilenko has decided to opt in with the Nets for next season at $3.3MM, a source tells David Aldridge of NBA.com (on Twitter). Kirilenko inked a one-year deal with a player option with the Nets last summer that caused quite a bit of controversy in NBA circles.
AK47 turned down a $10MM+ player option with the Timberwolves to sign a one-year, ~$3.1MM deal with Brooklyn that included a player option at roughly the same total. Almost instantly, executives were in an uproar and accusations of impropriety starting flying quickly. The league looked into the matter though and, ultimately, the Nets and Kirilenko were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Kirilenko walked from a big payday with the Wolves and didn’t really boost his value in his first season with the Nets. In 45 games, Kirilenko averaged 5.0 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.6 APG in 19.0 minutes per night. The 33-year-old was dogged by back trouble early in the season and had something of an up-and-down year after that. The Nets were 30-15 in the games that Kirilenko played in but coach Jason Kidd took the veteran out of the game plan for more than one postseason contest.
LeBron James To Opt Out, Hit Free Agency
LeBron James will opt out of his contract and become a free agent next month, agent Rich Paul has told the Heat, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). That means he’ll exercise his early termination option to get out of his contract that called for him to make $20.59MM next season and another $22.1125MM in 2015/16. It also opens the possibility that the four-time MVP will change teams and invites suitors to make pitches beginning a week from today.
The chances that he’d opt out appeared better than that he’d opt in, but while James reportedly has some hard feelings about what he perceives as Miami owner Micky Arison’s spending cutbacks this past season, most reports suggest that the Heat will likely retain him. That’s not a given, as the Rockets, Clippers, Cavs and others line up bids for the player in the top spot of the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but the decision from James is far from a death knell for his tenure in Miami.
The opt-out decision keeps the alive the notion that James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh could all re-sign at discounts to allow the Heat to court Carmelo Anthony, or perhaps Kyle Lowry or another top-tier free agent. James is determined to push the Heat to spend money and improve their roster, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Still, Miami’s abillity to do so will have much to do with whether Wade, Bosh and Udonis Haslem follow suit and opt out of their deals, as well as just how much of a discount that trio plus James are willing to take, as I explained when I looked at the offseason ahead for the Heat.
Just how much James can make on his next deal will depend on where the NBA sets the maximum salary for a player of his experience following the July moratorium, as our Luke Adams examined before the season. While it seems likely that he’d be limited to an amount that’s slightly less what he’d have made if he’d exercised his option, it appears as though James is prioritizing the chance to win over gathering every last dollar available. If that’s so, it mitigates the advantage the Heat have to offer a contract with higher raises than other teams can offer. Miami can also offer a fifth year, while other clubs are limited to four.
Channing Frye Opts Out Of Deal With Suns
As expected, Channing Frye has decided to opt out of the final year of his deal with the Suns, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Marc Stein of ESPN.com heard from a source yesterday that this was “99%” likely to happen.
The Suns have a desire to re-sign Frye, sources tell the Yahoo scribe, but much will be determined about that viability through the draft and possible trades. The Warriors and Cavs have the big man on their radar, according to yesterday’s report from Stein.
Frye will have his suitors with several teams on the lookout for a stretch four, but he has previously said that he’d like to work out a new contract with Phoenix. The 31-year-old missed all of 2012/13 with an enlarged heart but wound up playing and starting in all 82 of the Suns’ regular season games last season. Frye averaged 11.1 PPG with 5.1 RPG and 0.8 BPG in 28.2 minutes per contest. He’s had slightly better marks in those categories and in PER, but he was nonetheless a bright spot for the Suns last season.
Tim Duncan To Opt In For Next Season
5:43pm: It’s official: Duncan has submitted the paperwork to the league to notify everyone that he will be opting in, tweets Jeff McDonald of the Express News.
3:05pm: Tim Duncan has decided to opt in for 2014/15 with the Spurs, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The news appears to signal that Duncan will return this fall for his 18th NBA season, as had seemed likely in spite of his refusal to say definitively that he would not retire. The 38-year-old’s decision also dismisses the notion that he would opt out and sign a discounted contract. Duncan will make more than $10.361MM for the Spurs next season, the final year of his deal.
The contract originally called for Duncan to make $10MM, but that was the result of the league’s oversight of a rule that prohibited him from making less in the option year than he took in this past season. The NBA therefore adjusted his 2014/15 salary to match the money he made this year.
There was never any realistic chance that the Jim Tanner client would leave the Spurs this summer, with the only question surrounding his continued willingness to play. It appears as though he and San Antonio will embark on a quest for a repeat championship, a goal they’ve failed to achieve four times during Duncan’s certain Hall-of-Fame career.
The Spurs have slightly more than $44MM in salary for next season with Duncan in tow, but they’ll assuredly keep Tony Parker and pick up the $9MM non-guaranteed portion of Tony Parker’s deal. That would give San Antonio about $53MM in commitments, not including their first-round pick, putting the team roughly $10MM under the $63.2MM salary cap for next season.
Carmelo Anthony Opts Out, Will Hit Free Agency
MONDAY, 10:33am: Agent Leon Rose confirms that Anthony has opted out, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports via Twitter.
“Carmelo loves being a Knick, he loves the City and the fans,” Rose said. “At this stage of his career he just wants to explore his options.”
SUNDAY, 1:01pm: Knicks star Carmelo Anthony will file paperwork tomorrow to notify the Knicks that he will be opting out of his contract, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal (on Twitter) hears that Anthony actually submitted his formal early termination option letter on Friday stating his intentions to hit the open market.
It has long been expected that Anthony would exercise his ETO in order to explore free agency beginning on July 1st. Tomorrow marks the official opt-out deadline for Anthony, one of the league’s very best scorers, and it appears he will forgo a guaranteed $23.5MM from the Knicks to see what else is out there.
The Knicks, of course, can offer Anthony more money than anyone with a five-year, $125MM+ contract. However, Anthony is said to be intrigued by the opportunity to win right away with a team like the Bulls or Rockets. Phil Jackson may have a plan to turn the Knicks into contenders over the next few years, but it seems highly unlikely that they can vault themselves into the title mix in 2014/15.
It was reported last week that the Bulls are the frontrunners for the former Syracuse star, though it’s not clear if that means Chicago is ahead of New York in the running or if they’re just the top option outside of the Knicks. Anthony forced the Nuggets to trade him to the Knicks just three-and-a-half years ago and this summer there has been rampant speculation that Anthony is ready to take his talents to a third team.
Signing with the Bulls, Rockets, Mavs, or any other club would mean a maximum contract of $90MM over five seasons for Anthony. However, it has been rumored that Anthony is open to sacrificing dollars, and maybe even taking less than the max, to help his club add more talent. Both the Bulls and Rockets will have to do some shuffling before they can sign Melo to such a deal, however.
Darrell Arthur Opts In To Stay With Nuggets
Darrell Arthur has opted in to remain with the Nuggets, the team announced. He’ll make $3,457,149 next season, the final year on his contract. The Jerry Hicks client was strongly leaning toward picking up the option as of March. Arthur’s decision plus Nate Robinson‘s opt-in adds about $5.564MM to Denver’s commitments for 2014/15, though both were expected to remain on their contracts.
The Nuggets will have about $64.6MM in guaranteed salary for next season with Arthur and Robinson in tow, not counting the salary for the team’s No. 11 pick. Denver will almost assuredly enter July over the salary cap, projected to come in at $63.2MM. The team’s involvement in recent Kevin Love talks indicates that GM Tim Connelly is pursuing major changes via trade, with the prospect of a free agent signing for more than the mid-level likely off the table.
Arthur didn’t have much impact for the Nuggets after coming over via trade a year ago. He averaged 5.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game this past season. He’s never averaged double-figures in points or rebounds and 20.1 MPG is his career high, so it’s likely the 26-year-old wouldn’t have been able to find a salary equal to the value of his option on the open market. He’ll instead attempt to build his stock in advance of free agency next summer.
Nate Robinson Opts In For 2014/15
JUNE 23RD: Robinson has officially opted in to remain with the Nuggets, the team announced.
JUNE 22ND: No surprise here: Robinson’s agent Aaron Goodwin tells Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter) that his client will exercise his $2.1MM player option for next season with the Nuggets.
MARCH 6TH: Injured Nuggets guard Nate Robinson will exercise his player option to return to the team next season, according to Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. The move is not at all surprising, since the left ACL tear he suffered in January knocked him out for the rest of this season. Robinson tells Dempsey he’ll be ready for training camp in the fall.
The Aaron Goodwin client will make $2,106,720 next season, and that salary will push Denver’s guaranteed commitments for 2014/15 to nearly $61.156MM. Darrell Arthur has given early indications that he’ll exercise his player option, too, and the more than $3.457MM coming to him would almost assuredly push the Nuggets over the salary cap for next season.
Robinson averaged 10.4 points in 19.7 minutes per game over 44 contests in his debut season with the Nuggets. The ninth-year veteran shot 37.7% from three-point range, slightly better than his career average of 36.4%.